Effect of anthropic disturbances on the activity pattern of two generalist mesocarnivores inhabiting Mediterranean forestry plantations

Humans have been altering the Mediterranean landscapes for millennia. To diminish the probability of encounters with domestic animals, humans and their activities, many species adjust their behavior to become more nocturnal. Even habitat-generalist species, such as red fox and stone marten that are somehow tolerant to environmental changes, might be affected by anthropic disturbances. Nevertheless, only a small number of studies were implemented in Iberia targeting these mesocarnivores’ activity patterns, and fewer have assessed the temporal ecology of these species in Eucalyptus plantations, the current main forest cover in Portugal. Based on camera traps, we aimed to analyze: 1) the temporal and spatio-temporal activity patterns of red fox and stone marten; and 2) how they are affected by distinct human disturbances (i.e., humans, livestock, dogs, plantations, and hunting). Foxes presented a higher crepuscular activity, while martens were entirely nocturnal, suggesting some avoidance behavior. Both mesocarnivores showed a higher overlap with dogs’ activity than with humans or livestock. Foxes’ activity patterns vary between seasons and habitats but were not influenced by the hunting period. Results suggest that both mesocarnivores, besides setting apart their activity from humans related disturbances, also show a tendency to temporally avoid each other. While the increase of nocturnality may indicate an anthropic disturbance impact, a reduction of activity overlap between mesocarnivores may be a strategy to reduce competition. These results may help support the sustainable management of landscapes by highlighting critical periods where activity overlaps may occur, and thus the anthropic impacts on wildlife are higher.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Study of age-related changes in postural control during quiet standing through Linear Discriminant Analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The human body adopts a number of strategies to maintain an upright position. The analysis of the human balance allows for the understanding and identification of such strategies. The displacement of the centre of pressure (COP) is a measure that has been successfully employed in studies regarding the postural control. Most of these investigations are related to the analysis of individuals suffering from neuromuscular disorders. Recent studies have shown that the elderly population is growing very fast in many countries all over the world, and therefore, researches that try to understand changes in this group are required. In this context, this study proposes the analysis of the postural control, measured by the displacement of the COP, in groups of young and elderly adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In total 59 subjects participated of this study. They were divided into seven groups according to their age. The displacement of the COP was collected for each subject standing on a force plate. Two experimental conditions, of 30 seconds each, were investigated: opened eyes and closed eyes. Traditional and recent digital signal processing tools were employed for feature computation from the displacement of the COP. Statistical analyses were carried out in order to identify significant differences between the features computed from the distinct groups that could allow for their discrimination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results showed that Linear Discrimination Analysis (LDA), which is one of the most popular feature extraction and classifier design techniques, could be successfully employed as a linear transformation, based on the linear combination of standard features for COP analysis, capable of estimating a unique feature, so-called <it>LDA-value</it>, from which it was possible to discriminate the investigated groups and show a high correlation between this feature and age.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results show that the analysis of features computed from the displacement of the COP are of great importance in studies trying to understand the ageing process. In particular, the <it>LDA-value </it>showed to be an adequate feature for assessment of changes in the postural control which can be related to functional changes that occur over the ageing.</p

Characters associated with viviparity in common bean.

This study was carried out to verify the correlation between the pod wall thickness and the percentage of germination of seeds in the pods

Statistical optimization of α-amylase production by Escherichia coliusing extruded bean as nitrogen and carbon source

Response surface methodology based on mixture design was employed for statistical optimization of medium components for the growth and production of α-amylase by Escherichia coli pAC92. The combined effects of media constituents (peptone, yeast extract and extruded beans) were analyzed using a cubic model, which was developed by3-factor simplex lattice mixture design in predicting the optimum yield of growth and α-amylase activity. Results evidenced that extruded common bean was more effective as a nutrient source for E.colipAC92 growth. On the other hand, the completely substituted medium with extruded common bean resulted in 68% of increase in the growth of Escherichia coli pAC92. In addition, the culture medium containing 0.5% of extruded bean and 0.5% of peptone reached a α-amylase activity of 44.59 U. The optimal medium composition was determined by a numerical method based on desirability function, by which the optimal composition for maximum optical density and enzyme activity was found using 0.5% peptone and 0.5% extruded common bean as media constituents. Therefore, these results evidenced that extruded common bean can be successfully used as substitute of peptone and yeast extract in culture media for production of α-amylase byE.colipAC92

Improving the downstream processing of interferon alfa-2b using alternative purification platforms based on ionic liquids

Improvements on human life expectancy and the lack of effective therapies has led to an increment of chronic diseases, being the application of biopharmaceuticals an efficient strategy to mitigate this scenario. Among the current available biopharmaceuticals, the role of interferon α-2b (IFNα-2b) should be highlighted, as it has been marketed over 30 years with a considerable impact on the global therapeutic proteins market (Castro et al, Vaccines, 2021). IFN manufacturing requires the use of the recombinant DNA technology, involving two main stages, the upstream and downstream stages. The first includes recombinant protein production in a suitable host microorganism, such as Escherichia coli (Castro et al, Sep. Purif. Technol., 2020), while the second comprises protein recovery, isolation, purification and polishing. Due to the high demands of the pharmaceutical industry for products with high purity and biological activity, the downstream stage is responsible for the majority of the production costs of biopharmaceuticals (50–90%), often including time-consuming and multi-step processes. Therefore, there is an immediate need to develop more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable protein purification methodologies. In this work, two ionic-liquid-(IL)-based strategies were investigated for the purification of IFNα-2b recombinantly produced from E. coli fermentation broth, namely as adjuvants in aqueous biphasic systems or as chromatographic ligands immobilized in solid materials. Overall, the obtained results demonstrate that by tailoring IL’s chemical structures, improved protein purification processes are obtained and that the secondary structure of proteins is preserved.publishe

Sustainable ionic-liquid-based strategies for the downstream processing of interferon α-2b from Echerichia coli

Over the last decades, society has been facing an increment of chronic diseases due to the higher human life expectancy and the lack of efficient treatments for several pathologies. In this regard, biopharmaceuticals have become one of the most effective clinical treatments for a broad range of diseases, including cancer, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders [1]. Among biopharmaceuticals, the role of interferons, particularly interferon α-2b (IFNα-2b), should be underlined, as they have been marketed for over 30 years with a considerable impact on the global therapeutic proteins market [2]. Usually based on the recombinant DNA technology, the manufacturing process of biopharmaceuticals encompasses two main stages: the upstream and downstream stages. Typically, the upstream phase includes recombinant protein production processes in a suitable host microorganism, such as Escherichia coli [3], while the general downstream processing of biopharmaceuticals comprises four stages - recovery, isolation, purification and polishing -, which are responsible for the majority of the production costs of biopharmaceuticals (50–90%) [3]. The downstream processing is a time-consuming and multi-step process, for which the development of cost-effective purification processes is mandatory to decrease their costs and environmental impact. In this context, two ionic-liquid-(IL)-based strategies were investigated in this work for the purification of IFNα-2b recombinantly produced from E. coli fermentation broth. ILs have been used as adjuvants in aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) and applied in supported materials as alternative ligands. The obtained results demonstrate that ILs have a tailoring ability and contribute to the development of more effective and sustainable downstream processes of biopharmaceuticals.publishe

On the Integration of Industrial Data and Analysis with Simulation in a Company of the Cork Sector

Nowadays, companies are constantly seeking to develop tools to increase productivity, production flexibility and the quality of their products, or to reduce costs, delays and their exposure to risks. In fact, such improvements can be achieved in the scope of product as well as of process improvement. In industrial contexts, often, such improvements can be achieved by implementing tools to access the intended information in due time, such as Decision Support Tools. Aligned with the aforementioned, this project was developed in the context of a cork industry, dedicated to the agglomeration of cork and other materials, such as rubber, foams and recycled plastics, and the transformation of these same agglomerates into products, such as joints, footwear, floors, consumer goods, acoustic coatings and sports surfaces. More specifically, tools for the automated access to information were developed, namely, a reference search tool that meets the specified requirements of managers from the company, as well as a tool to search the available dimensions or production steps for a given product. Moreover, and infield of process improvement, a set of simulation models were also developed using SIMIO. First, there was a survey and parameterization of the critical factors of the line, so that the simulation could be elaborated, and afterwards the balancing of the system was studied, considering different scenarios. Depending on the type of roll to be produced and according to the type of packaging, the balancing of the system varies. Other scenarios were studied for when the system is not balanced, in order to avoid this occurrence. All in all, the set of tools that were developed led to a considerable reduction of the time spent by human resources on accessing critical information, as well as an improvement of the analysis of their industrial processes

Citotoxicity and acute oral toxicity tests of nanometer- and submicrometer-sized hollow spheres of chondroitin sulfate as a potential formulation strategy for anti-inflammatory encapsulation.

NanoAgri 2010. Editors: Caue Ribeiro, Odílio Benedito Garrido de Assis, Luiz Henrique Capparelli Mattoso, Sérgio Mascarenhas

Uma análise sobre o emprego setorial brasileiro

O objetivo deste artigo foi avaliar o impacto das transformações da economia brasileira na estrutura do emprego setorial, no período 1988-2006, buscando identificar as causas primárias que explicam a dispersão setorial do emprego, tendo como marco a abertura comercial brasileira e, principalmente, o Plano Real. A metodologia utilizada consistiu no cálculo de um índice de dispersão setorial do emprego e num teste de correlação entre este índice e um índice normalizado do número de vagas de trabalho. O resultado obtido foi que, antes da implementação do Plano Real, os movimentos de demanda setorial foram os principais responsáveis pelas alterações setoriais do emprego, enquanto após sua implementação, em 1994, verificaram-se movimentos setoriais puros que foram atribuídos à reestruturação tecnológica, organizacional e produtiva. A partir de 2004, os resultados indicam que os efeitos da reestruturação econômica se reduziram e as alterações setoriais do emprego passaram a ocorrer novamente, devido aos movimentos de demanda setorial

A genome-wide association study for morphometric traits in quarter horse

A genome-wide association study for morphometric traits was conducted in 184 Quarter Horses, 120 from a racing population, and 64 from a cutting population, which were genotyped using the Illumina EquineSNP50 chip. Association analysis was performed with 42,058 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (after quality control) using Qxpak5 software. The following traits were measured: weight (W), rump length (RL), and body length (BL). These morphometric traits are important for the best performance in race and cutting events. For weight, three SNPs associated (P < .0001) were found on chromosomes (Equus caballus autosomes [ECA]) 2 and 3. For rump length, eight SNPs associated (P < .0001) were found on ECA 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 21, and 26. On ECA 3 and ECA 8, two SNPs were associated (P < .0001) with body length. So, a total of 13 important chromosomal regions were identified with Q values of 0.53 (SNPs for W), 0.40 (SNPs for RL), and 0.99 (SNPs for BL). Positional and functional candidate genes emerging from this study were WWOX and AAVPR1A. Further studies are required to confirm these associations in other populations. (c) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved